Thursday, June 13th, 2013

11:30 last night and the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins were tied at the end of the 2^nd overtime period.  That was enough for me - I had to go to bed.  I found out in the morning that the Blackhawks scored the winning goal in the 3^rd overtime – almost exactly at midnight Chicago/Medellin time.

I woke up a couple of times to go to the bathroom – I heard rain both times so it probably rained most of the night.  I finally got up at 7am.

I ran into John William on the way to Exito to get my milk.  He told me he has breakfast at a bakery on Calle 35 just down the street from his office.  He says everything is served fresh and hot each morning so I’ll give that a try sometime soon.  We made a lunch date for today at 1pm.  I’ll meet him at his office and then we’ll walk over to Likke’s for lunch.  He gave me his email address as I promised to send him a document I have answering the question “What is an American?”.

I took my postcards with a note and showed it to the lady at the Customer Service desk at Exito.  She wrote Deprisa on my note and said to go there and pointed like it’s north on Avenida 80.  Hmm, I wonder if it’s within walking distance.  I’ll give it a try after breakfast.

On my way back to the apartment I ran into John again and he confirmed that Deprisa is a company that mails packages so it seems like I’m on the right track.

A little bit later I walked down to Avenida 80 then walked north to Calle 44 but I didn’t see any store named Deprisa.  I then walked west to the office supply store and showed them one of my colored file folders.  They have something similar but with a plastic tab in one corner and all flesh colored.  I wasn’t happy with that so the lady said I could try another paper store down on Calle 44.  I then stopped at the Internet Café and had both sides of my Cedula copied in color for 900 pesos (50 cents) but they don’t do laminating.  If I have a laminated color copy then I don’t have to carry the real thing with me all the time.

Back at home I googled Deprisa and found the address: Carrera 81 #37-100 Exito Laureles.  Now, Exito Laureles is where I started but that might just be identifying an area approximately where Deprisa is while the rest of the address identifies the exact location.  I understand Avenida 80 IS Carrera 81 – go figure.  So #37 should be further south of Exito, not north.  I then googled Exito Laureles and found the address of CARRERA 81 37 – 100.  Now I am confused.

I got an email from Rosetta Stone inquiring as to the operating system my computer uses.  I responded with Windows 7.  To be continued…

I met John at his office at 1pm.  I met Andrew, one of his students, and he practiced speaking English with me for a while.  He has traveled all over the world, including China, Russia, and the US. 

I took John to Likkes for lunch and as soon as they delivered our food he admitted it was better than the restaurant he usually goes to, it’s also closer to his office, and for the same price.  John explained that I didn’t need to give them a long list of what I liked and didn’t like, all I have to do is order Bandeja Paisa without chicharron.  I thought I was buying him lunch but he thought he was buying me lunch.  Lol.  I gave him 20mil and he gave me 10mil back for the 14 mil bill so I guess we split the cost. 

I told John my difficulty finding Deprisa so he went with me to Exito and spoke to them at the Customer Service desk.  Instead of sending us north on Avenida they sent us behind Viva.  As we were heading there John mentioned that Exito is a new mall – only about 6 months old – and everything started to make sense.  The reason Deprisa has the same address as Exito is it was probably there before Exito and then had to move.  And Deprisa is probably the place my brother and I stopped at when he was here – I probably have their business card here someplace.  I’m sure they send packages but I don’t know if they send letters.  I didn’t have the postcards with me but they were closed anyway.  I’m guessing they would probably open again at 2pm. 

I said goodbye to John and headed to Laureles Mall.  I studied my chess course for a few hours and then headed over to Viva and had a Bacon BBQ burger at Burger King for 4,500 ($2.50) and small vanilla milkshake from El Corral for 6,600 ($3.67).

I finally got a confirmation from Eddie: I’m going to meet him at the McDonald’s in the Envigado Exito tomorrow morning from 9-10am.  I guess tomorrow I might be having breakfast at McDonald’s.